Barbara’s front flower garden, a deep curving border around a small oval lawn, is a traffic-stopper — or at least a stopper of 50 eager garden bloggers. But just wait until you see the back garden!

But before we head to the back, let’s explore the front. My eye went straight to variegated yuccas (‘Bright Edge’?), their lemon-yellow stripes echoed by yellow yarrow, yellow-and-white lantana, and tawny Mexican feathergrass (I think) — a combo that would be at home in Austin.

In the other, a spiny euphorbia stands tall with a paddle plant and Portulacaria afra (thanks for the ID, Diana!).

There was much to see out here, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss out on the back garden, so I headed along the side-yard path. No throw-away space here but rather a golden shade garden with hostas, sedge, and a redbud tree (maybe ‘Hearts of Gold’). Dark-green shrubs in the background make the golds pop.

Foliage detail

A few blogger friends stopped here to admire the plant combos too, including Gail, Tracy, and Jennifer.

Entering the back garden, where a generous stone patio bridges house and garden…

…you’re led to a small pond and waterfall…

…that stair-steps down from the top of a 12-foot slope, where a gazebo roof entices you to climb up and explore.

What an oasis…

…and not just for goldfish.

Barbara told us that she’d created this garden for clients who later decided to move. Spontaneously, she and her husband purchased the home in order to acquire the garden. She laughingly told us that in this way she was able to get a professionally designed garden — her own — without having to pay for it.

I doubt she ever sits down in her garden, but this comfortable seating area in the shade of a tall tree is inviting.

Barbara pays careful attention to color combinations, both flowers and foliage. One side of the back garden is planted with an orange, white, and purple color scheme.

The other side of the garden features yellow, pink, blue, and maroon plants.

Which is your favorite?

Purple-leaved loropetalum and a purple-pink daylily

Now let’s climb the steps up the slope…

…stopping to admire the falling stream, which looks completely natural…

…and beautiful planters on the steps.

I enjoyed Barbara’s playful garden art, like this lizard seemingly sunning himself on a boulder…

…and this “bottle fly.”

You enter the upper garden via a perfect circle of emerald lawn, a calm counterpoint to the lush garden beds. Behind the pink hydrangeas on the far side of the circle (near owner/designer Barbara in the orange tank top)…

From here you enjoy a view of the house and lower patio and an upper pond with a bubbling fountain.

This plume poppy (Macleaya cordata) stands tall in a pot near the gazebo (see the gazebo picture, above), so pretty against a burgundy Japanese maple.

Stokes’ aster ‘Klaus Jelitto’ in full bloom alongside a shady birdbath. On her Facebook page, Barbara recently wrote that the aster is “still going strong after 22 years in the exact same spot, with zero maintenance.”

A closeup

A lilac-and-blue lacecap hydrangea harmonizes…

…as do these cute little plants growing in the cracks of a mossy stone path — rose campion?

Looking back to the circular lawn — what a stunning space!

There’s not an inch of this garden that didn’t wow me. I’m thrilled to have been able to visit.

I welcome your comments; please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading this in a subscription email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post.
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Digging Deeper: News and Upcoming Events

Book Giveaway! I’m giving away a copy of a fun new book, Potted, that’ll inspire you to DIY your own uniquely cool garden planters for porch, patio, or deck. Just leave a comment on my giveaway blog post to enter (click the link and comment there), and good luck! The giveaway ends Friday, July 14, 2017.

Get on the mailing list for Garden Spark Talks. Inspired by the idea of house concerts, I’m hosting a series of garden talks by talented designers and authors out of my home. Talks are limited-attendance events and generally sell out within just a few days, so join the Garden Spark email list for early notifications. Simply click this link and ask to be added.

Reminiscent of a New Orleans cottage garden with picket fencing and tropical-looking potted plants out front, and with black-humor garden art in back, the garden evokes a Southern Gothic vibe more common in the Deep South than in the Upper South/Mid-Atlantic region of Washington, D.C.

A potted banana makes a broad-leaved focal point in the tiny front garden.

Rounding the corner of the house into the side yard, you see two things: 1) that Jeff has made the most of his small front garden by continuing it into a fully landscaped side yard with a major water feature, and 2) that his lot drops dramatically from the back of the house. This pretty stream, which spills into small pools, turns into a waterfall just a few feet farther along.

Tucked in a patch of prostrate yew and sedge, a golden-eyed frog watches you pass by.

From a small patio at the back corner of the house, you enjoy a view of the waterfall, overhung with a lacy Japanese maple.

And then the garden falls away from the house into a wooded canyon — or so we’d call it in Texas — lushly planted with ferns, hostas, hydrangeas, Japanese maples, and other shade lovers.

Great old trees rise above the understory along this lower path.

White-flowering hydrangea brightens the dimly lit garden.

Climbing back up to the house, you reach a narrow back patio and a handy outdoor shower.

Jeff has a slightly macabre sense of humor, as evidenced by his garden art, like this statuary fountain of a headless woman cradling her own head. This got a lot of attention from the bloggers!

As did this — an agave whose stiff, spiky leaves were topped with tiny skulls.

I couldn’t help laughing when I saw it — and contemplating the “danger garden” aspect of growing agaves.

Potted clivia adds color and more of that subtropical New Orleans vibe.

Back out front, I was admiring an arched doorway of purple-leaved loropetalum when Karin of Southern Meadows walked through in her matching purple shirt. Of course I had to get a picture.

I also really like Jeff’s unpainted fence of staggered-height 1×1-inch cedar pickets. A small concrete urn planted with succulents tops this mossy baluster near the street, adding one more charming element to a wonderfully charming garden.

I welcome your comments; please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading this in a subscription email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post.
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Digging Deeper: News and Upcoming Events

Get on the mailing list for Garden Spark Talks. Inspired by the idea of house concerts, I’m hosting a series of garden talks by talented designers and authors out of my home. Talks are limited-attendance events and generally sell out within just a few days, so join the Garden Spark email list for early notifications. Simply click this link and ask to be added.

This beautiful and classic garden belongs to Arlington, Virginia designer Scott Brinitzer, and we saw it on the second day of touring during the Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling in late June. We entered the garden via this long gravel path, drawn in by a striking focal point: a potted purple cordyline in a dusty blue pot in front of a pumpkin-colored shed door.

You can see the same pot in this photo, pulling double duty now as a focal point viewed from a spacious stone patio off the back of the house. Framed by a low hedge of clipped boxwood, feathery clumping bamboo, and panels of gray lattice fencing, the pot works like a visual magnet, drawing the eye into the next space along the L-shaped gravel path that connects various garden rooms.

I might have mirrored the lattice panels for additional privacy, but leaving them open provides more air flow, which is a plus in a Southern garden.

I love the color choices, which give a contemporary edge to the classic design. (Compare with the door’s previous incarnation in blue, as seen in Scott’s portfolio pics on his website.)

Here’s the opposite view, looking away from the shed toward a small circular patio and a pair of white Adirondacks. This pathway is a double axis, with carefully considered views that pull your eye toward focal points in each direction — an effective design technique for directing the movement of people through a garden and making the most of a small space.

The circular patio acts as a visual pause at the end of the path…

…as well as a turning point for a pathway to the driveway.

The old garage still sits at the end of what was once a long driveway. Scott told us that he kept part of the driveway up by the street and converted the rest into a water-permeable gravel path and garden, helping to cut down on water runoff from his property. Yes, that makes it a water-saving garden!

Heading back to the stone patio, wire chairs take up very little space, visually, as they cluster around a lion’s-head wall fountain.

I love how the fountain is cloaked with moisture-loving moss and softened by a clematis vine. A yellow hosta echoes the yellow-themed container planting at left…

Other patio pots contain caramel-colored plants, for an interesting change of pace.

New Zealand sedges, I think

Enveloped by the garden, the house is shaded by lovely trees, which Scott planted in his own and his neighbors’ yards as part of a streetwide beautification effort. A swooping wall of concrete aggregate encloses the front garden and the front porch — the creation of the home’s former owner.

Built-in urns are planted with a variety of succulents.

Scott’s dog, a cute Norwich terrier named Kobe, hung out with us as we toured the garden and enjoyed the wine and snacks the owners generously provided.

I welcome your comments; please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading this in a subscription email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post.
_______________________

Digging Deeper: News and Upcoming Events

Get on the mailing list for Garden Spark Talks. Inspired by the idea of house concerts, I’m hosting a series of garden talks by talented designers and authors out of my home. Talks are limited-attendance events and generally sell out within just a few days, so join the Garden Spark email list for early notifications. Simply click this link and ask to be added.

Hello! I'm Pam Penick, a dirt-under-my-nails, hoping-for-rain, spiky-plant lover gardening under the Death Star in Austin, Texas (zone 8b). Here's where I share all the gardening goodness I can dig up, not just in Austin but wherever I go. Want to know more? Read Meet Pam and My Gardens. Or drop me a line to say hello.